China's elections feel government's hand

The candidacies of social activists at the local level are often stymied

AUDRA ANG, Associated Press

Published 6:30 am, Saturday, November 11, 2006

BEIJING — Cai Aimin says he was busily handing out homemade leaflets on the streets, campaigning for a seat in his city's legislature, when police swooped in and dragged him into an unmarked car.

The platform outlined in his handbills called for exposing corrupt officials and protecting citizens from seizures of their property. The police, he said, did not agree.

"They kept me in a hotel for three days and detained me for another 15 days after that," Cai, 35, said by telephone from Zhengzhou, where he sought election. "But I'm not afraid of them. What they have done is totally wrong."

In the midst of an election season for local congresses, a tug-of-war is under way across China between social activists demanding a say in local politics and a communist leadership determined to maintain strict limits on the low-level democracy it has promoted for some years.

The government allows direct elections of the largely powerless district legislatures and seems to hold the upper hand over candidates it doesn't like.

Cai is among at least five activists whose candidacies have been stymied. A campaigner against soaring property prices in the southern city of Shenzhen couldn't get his name on the ballot. In the central city of Wuhan, Wen Yan said authorities paid his neighbors to beat him up and confiscate the 6,000 fliers and 200 T-shirts he had printed for his campaign for the district congress.

"I want to see freedom and democracy," Wen said in a telephone interview. "But I was harassed by people from the community where I was living. They followed me and took back the leaflets and T-shirts I had distributed."

Despite the setbacks, the elections underscore a slow shift in China as people, given greater mobility and prosperity by free-market reforms, are challenging the Communist Party's political monopoly.

The Communist Party dominates the congresses, controlling the credentials committees that vet candidates while trumpeting the system in state media as Chinese-style democracy.

More than 2 million deputies are being elected to local People's Congresses over an 18-month period lasting until Dec. 31, 2007, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Activists and academics have logged an array of repressive measures. Complaints about bribery and intimidation of voters are common. The term "independent candidate" is not even accepted. Those approved become "candidates recommended by the electorate."

Cai says police in Zhengzhou warned him that if he didn't stop mentioning corruption or property rights, "they would 're-educate me' or send me to prison."